A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Transcription

1 A Rose is a Rose is a Rose Talks given from 28/6/76 to 27/7/76 Darshan Diary

2 CHAPTER 1 28 June 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium [A sannyasin leaving for the West says: I feel deep gratitude for all that has happened to me since I ve been here.] I know... Much will be happening, much more, and gratitude prepares the way. Feel as grateful to existence as possible for small things, not only for great things... just for sheer breathing. We don t have any claim on existence, so whatsoever is given is a gift. If it is not given we don t have any court for appeal. So grow more and more in gratitude and thankfulness not only towards me; let it become your very style. Be grateful to everybody. If one understands gratitude then one is grateful for things that have been done positively. And one even feels grateful for things which could have been done negatively. You feel grateful that somebody helped you; this is just the beginning. Then you start feeling grateful that somebody has not harmed you he could have; it was so kind of him. Once you understand the feeling of gratitude and allow it to sink deeply within you, you will start feeling grateful for everything. And the more grateful you are, the less complaining, grumbling. Once complaining disappears, misery disappears. It exists with complaints. It is hooked with complaints and with the complaining mind. Misery is impossible with gratefulness. So that is one of the most important secrets to learn. [The Hypnotherapy Group was at darshan tonight. A group member said: It was very good for me. I felt that I was allowing myself more and no longer fighting. I felt less guilty because I used to feel very guilty. And I also feel more balanced, so I feel very good.] 2

3 CHAPTER 1. You look good! All things happen together. If you feel less guilty, immediately you start feeling more happy. If you feel more, happy, you feel less in conflict, more harmonious, together. If you feel together, more harmonious, suddenly you feel a certain grace surrounding you. These things function like a chain reaction: one starts the other, the other starts another, and they go on spreading. But to begin with, feeling less guilty is very very important. The whole of humanity has been made to feel guilty centuries of conditioning, of telling people to do this and not to do that... and not only that, but forcing them by saying that if they do something that is not allowed by the society or by the church, then they are sinners. If they do something which is appreciated by the society and the church, then they are saints.so everybody has been fooled into doing things that society wants them to do, and not to do things that society does not want them to do. Nobody has bothered about whether this is your thing or not. Nobody has bothered about the individual. The thinking up to now has been this that the individual exists for the society so the individual has to follow just what the society says. He has to fit with the society. That is the definition of the normal human being to fit with the society. Even if the society is insane, you have to fit with it; then you are normal. Even if the society is neurotic and you try to be sane, you will be thought neurotic because the society is the majority. They have power so they can make anybody feel guilty. They have put a deep mechanism inside you which they call a conscience which, if you move slightly away from the norm, the accepted rules of the game, immediately says, Wrong! Wrong! You are doing something wrong! Now the problem for the individual is that nature demands one thing and society demands something contrary. If the society was demanding the same as nature demands, there would have been no conflict. Man would still have remained in the garden of Eden. The problem arises because society has its own interests which are not necessarily in tune with the individual and his interests. Society has its own investments. The individual has to be sacrificed. This is a very topsy-turvy world. Just the other way round should be the right thing. The individual does not exist for the society. The society exists for the individual. Because society is just an institution. It has no soul. An individual has the soul, is the conscious centre; it has a centre. God resides in the individual, not in the society. Society is nothing just a word. You cannot come across society anywhere. Wherever you go, you will come across the individual. Society is just in the dictionaries and in the legal codes of the courts. It is a term but a very big blanket term. It covers many things. And for this blanket term the real individual can be sacrificed and he has been up to now. Rarely have a few individuals been able to escape from this dangerous structure. These few individuals are the religious rebels Jesus, Buddha, Krishna. They tried to live their life according to their nature. They dropped conscience. they dropped all guilt. They became part of nature rather than part of society. Nature is vast. Society is very tiny. Society is man-made. nature is God-made. They chose God instead of a man-made institution. The difference is just like marriage nad love. Marriage is a man-made institution. Love has nothing to do with man s manufactured institutions. Love is natural. Wherever you find society is in conflict A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 3 Osho

4 CHAPTER 1. with nature, choose nature whatsoever the cost. You will never be a loser. You will always gain. If you choose society, you will always be a loser. The game will be very short term, worth nothing, and you will lose your whole soul. So this is the basic thing to move into a new light, into a new consciousness, where you can unguilt yourself. And then many more things follow. So good... but keep the insight and don t get into the guilt again. Drop it more and more. It is still lingering there in the unconscious. Drop it from there also. [A group member says: I laughed a lot. I relaxed a lot. I felt some changes.] Very good. Changes are easy if you allow. Laughter is the most easy thing in the world if you allow, but it has become hard. People laugh very rarely, and even when they laugh it is not true. People laugh as if they are obliging somebody, as if they are fulfilling a certain duty. Laughter is fun. You are not obliging anybody! Just as with love... you are not obliging anybody. Love is fun. Laughter is fun. Life is fun. But somehow the idea has gone very deeply into the mind that you are fulfilling duties. You see a person and you smile. You smile for him. One should smile only for oneself. If others share, good. If nobody shares, good. But one should smile of one s own accord. One should not laugh to make somebody else happy, because if you are not happy, you cannot make anybody happy. Even if you are happy, it is very difficult to make somebody else happy because it depends on that somebody else as to whether he will accept it or not. One should simply laugh of one s own accord, and one should not wait for reasons to laugh. That too is absurd. Why wait for reasons? Life as it is should be enough of a reason to laugh. It is so absurd, it is so ridiculous. It is so beautiful... it is so wonderful. It is all sorts of things together. It is a great cosmic joke. If you start looking into things you will not be able to stop laughing. Everything is simply perfect for laughter nothing is lacking but we won t allow. We are very miserly... miserly about laughter, love, life. Once you know that miserliness can be dropped, you move into a different dimension. Laughter is the real religion. Everything else is just metaphysics. Laughter is true religion because it will bring you closer and closer to life. In great laughter the ego disappears suddenly you are open to the whole, to the whole of existence. All doors, all windows open. So make it a point to laugh more. Always keep laughter alive so that for any tiny reason, or for no reason, you are always ready to burst into laughter. And don t wait for excuses to laugh. If they are available, good. If they are not available there is no need for them. One can laugh without them. It looks mad if you laugh without any reason but don t be bothered about what others say. It is your life and the more you fill it with laughter, the more sacred it will become. Laugh your way to God! [An elderly sannyasin says:... I was never really a child when I was one, but these last few days, I often feel like a little child... and I want to tease everybody. I want to do crazy things.] A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 4 Osho

5 CHAPTER 1. [chuckling] That s really a miracle, really a miracle! To feel like a child again is a great conversion. Allow it... don t feel shy about it. Tease people! It will be difficult because of your age, your mind and your experience, but don t be bothered. Put your age and mind aside. If you can, you will suddenly feel a new energy arising in your body. Your age will be reduced by at least twenty years. You can become younger immediately and you can live longer. So allow it; it is beautiful. That s what Jesus means when he says, Those who are like children, only they will be able to enter my kingdom of God. One has to become a child again and then life is complete. In childhood we start and in childhood we end. If one dies without becoming a child, his whole life circle is incomplete. He will have to be born again. That is the whole eastern idea of rebirth. If you can be reborn reborn in this life there is no need to be born again. If you can really become a child in this body, there is no need to be born into the world again. You can live in the heart of God. There is no need then to come back. You have learned the lesson and completed the circle. My whole effort here is this: to help you to be a child again. It is difficult, it is very difficult, because your whole experience, your whole pattern, your whole character resists and says, What are you doing? It looks foolish! But be foolish and let it assert itself. You will feel so unburdened, so new, and as fresh as a dew drop. That freshness is something of the spirit, because your body is old but your consciousness can be new and young. So it is somewhat of a miracle. If you allow it, it will grow and you will be able to see things again as a small child with no ideas, no verbalisations, with no mind. Then the world is so luminous. Life is like a rainbow so many colours, so many sounds. It is a great orchestra but only a child can feel it because we have so many ideas. Those ideas act as blinkers. Even when we see the moon, our ideas about the moon are standing between us and the moon. The moon is never really available to you so many layers, so many screens. If you allow this child to grow again, it will be a death and a resurrection. The old will disappear by and by and will be replaced by a totally new consciousness and then you will be able to see that a rose is a rose is a rose. You will be able to penetrate into the facticity of things with no words, no verbalisations, no philosophy, no metaphysics, no religion. A child knows none. He simply looks direct. His being is immediate. He is full of presence, available, open. Allow it. This is something very significant, but you can lose it. If you don t help it, it can be lost easily because your whole personality will be against it. You will have to consciously work a way for it, to allow it. Your whole past will be there like a rock and this new phenomenon will just be like dripping water, a small stream, which can become a river if you help; otherwise the rock is too big. But ultimately, if one goes on helping, the softer, the more water-like, the stronger one is, the more the rocklike things disappear. In the long run the rock is always defeated by the water. The old man is always defeated by the child. Death is always defeated by life. One should remember that, and one should always help the softer, the younger and fresher things. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 5 Osho

6 CHAPTER 1. [She then asks: If I want to tease and the person doesn t want it, then there is the risk I will be rejected, and this has always been a problem for me. What should I do?] A child never bothers about these things. This a question coming from your past, not from your child. A child doesn t bother. He goes on teasing. Whether somebody rejects him or not is not a problem to him. That s why he is a child! He does not think pro and con and he does not calculate. He does not think whether this child will like it or not. That is not the point. So don t ask this question because this question comes not from the child but from the rock... not from the water. This question comes from your old personality. It says, What are you going to do? Will it be good or bad? Think about it. Then you will not be able to because this calculation, this clever mind, has entered into it. You are no more a child. And if you decide by this mind, then the teasing will also be useless because now the control remains with the old. Forget all about it! At the most they can reject you. That is their problem. It has nothing to do with you. Really be a child and let us see what happens. At the most, people can reject you or can think that you have gone crazy. That s what they will think, so let them! It is worth it. Being crazy is worth it. You have remained sane long enough. Now try the other way. For seven days simply forget all consideration. Simply do whatsoever you feel like doing. Just behave like a child and a child never asks. So don t ask for seven days. A child never thinks just a feeling and he goes and does things. Make friends with children... small children around the ashram. Make friends with them and follow them. Whatsoever they do, you do [laughter]. They will enjoy it and will not reject you at all. Children are very very receptive and they always understand. They will immediately understand that you look old but you are not. Just mix with children and forget about big people. [A group member says: I feel much less fear. I think I trust more.] Good, very good. Trust is life. Trust is God. I don t say to people to trust in God. I simply say trust, because trust is God. There is nothing to fear because we don t have anything to lose. Nobody can rob us, and all that can be robbed is not worth-while, so why fear, why suspect, why doubt? These are the real robbers doubt, suspicion, fear. They destroy your very possibility of celebration. So while on earth, celebrate the earth. While this moment lasts, enjoy it to the very core. Take all the juice that it can give to you and is ready to give to you. Because of fear you miss many things. Because of fear we cannot love, or even if we love it is always half-hearted, it is always so-so. It is always up to a certain extent and not beyond that. We always come to a point beyond which we are afraid, so we are stuck there. We cannot move deep in friendship because of fear. We cannot do prayer because of fear. There are people who go on saying that people do prayer because of fear. That s true; many people pray because of fear. But there is an even greater truth than that and it is that many people don t go the whole way in prayer because of fear. They may start in fear but then they don t go very far. They just remain on the formal, the cliche level. They say some formal prayer to God but they really A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 6 Osho

7 CHAPTER 1. are not moved, thrilled by it. It is not an ecstasy. They are not mad with it. They don t go headlong. They move very cautiously and all caution is based on fear. Be conscious but never be cautious. The distinction is very subtle. Consciousness is not rooted in fear. Caution is rooted in fear. One is cautious so that one may never go wrong, but then one cannot go very far. The very fear will not allow you to investigate new lifestyles, new channelisations of energy, new directions, new lands; it will not allow you. You will always tread on the same path again and again, shuttling backwards and forwards, shuttling backwards and forwards. One becomes like a goods train. Consciousness simply says, Be conscious of whatsoever you are doing, wherever you are going. Just remain alert so you can enjoy it to the very last drop. So nothing is missed, you are alert. Fear is one of the most basic problems to be faced, encountered, and if you feel it is less, make it even lesser. It is like the weeds in the garden. One has to go on continuously pulling them. up and throwing them away, otherwise they tend to overrun the whole garden. If you allow the weeds, sooner or later roses will disappear, flowers will disappear and there will be weeds all over the garden. One has to go on continuously pulling them up. Only then can the garden remain beautiful. When all the roots are uprooted, then there is no problem. You can relax. This is the whole effort, the sadhana, the very inner discipline, the work. So, fear seems to be your chief characteristic. Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, Find your chief characteristic, because around that everything is hooked. For example, [one] has a guilt feeling; that is her chief characteristic and everything is hooked around it. If she loses the guilt feeling, then everything will drop by itself. If you drop your fear, there is nothing else to drop. Everything will drop automatically because everything is just part of the fear. So it has been good. But insights give you a glimpse and then one has to work hard to make them more and more crystallised realities. So now each moment be more alert and don t allow any fear. Wherever you see that there is fear, drop it. Even sometimes if it is needed, then go into the fear. [Osho said that if one is afraid of darkness one should go into it, explore it, allow it, and by and by one would come to experience the beauty of darkness and to welcome and love it.] As I see it, in life there is nothing which is bad, nothing which has to be feared nothing whatsoever. It is just that we have certain ideas implanted in the mind in certain fragile moments and they go on projecting. A small child is left in the crib. He is hungry and he cries out, looks around and he cannot see anything; it is dark and nobody is coming. Now the aloneness, the hunger, nobody responding to his call and cry, and the fear, all become associated. They become associated so deeply that whenever he is in the dark, even after fifty years, he will start feeling a certain fear. That fifty-yearold association is still alive. Now he is no more a child, no more in the crib, no more dependent on the mother, but still that fear is there functioning and projecting. So just watch and drop fear more and more. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 7 Osho

8 CHAPTER 1. If you can clean your consciousness of fear you have come to the right path. Then the real journey of celebration starts. [The therapist who conducts the Soma group, said she had allowed a couple of participants to conduct a few sessions in the group, and it turned into an encounter group she couldn t deal with, so she had walked out. Osho checked her energy.] There is nothing to be worried about. From just the very beginning, never allow anybody to take over the group, howsoever experienced. Never allow anybody to do that. They have to be participants and the participant has to remain a participant. If you allow that, there will be chaos. Now you are suffering because of the chaos. Now you see that nothing is happening and nothing is going to happen that way because now the direction is lost. If somebody is trying to force his own way on the group, tell him to leave, because he has to be there as a participant. If he wants to lead a group he has to come and see me. But this is not the way. Once things have gone out of your hands it is difficult to control them again and frustration will come. You will start feeling that you are not the leader of the group and they will be on their own. Sometimes things can be good on their own and I m still thinking about a group where there would be no leader, just the participants, so whatsoever they want to do, they do. That will have its own flow and it may give many things to people, but that is only possible when they have done all the groups. You should not move from your schedule in any way and you should not allow anybody to replace you, because if you do, the group will be lost. It will turn into Encounter, it will turn into Arica, it will turn into anything. You know what has to be done. You have the whole direction. You have the schedule, the planning in your mind of how things have to develop. So tell [the participants] that they have to be participants and if you feel that the time is wasted, then extend the group for three days. And don t bring in your problems while you are leading the group. That is one of the things that the leader has to understand. When you are functioning as a leader, forget all about your personal problems. It is just as when an electrician is working; he forgets all his problems. Here he is just an electrician. A plumber is working in the bathroom; he forgets all his problems. He does not bring them here, because we have called him as a plumber. There in the group you are the leader. You need not bring your problems with you. That is a great discipline for you. That is what the leader is going to be benefited by. You put your problems aside and here you function as an expert who knows something about the human mind. And you can help people not that you pretend that you have gone beyond your problems, but you know something. That know-how you can impart, that s all. When somebody comes as a plumber, you don t bother about whether he has problems or not. That is his business. He is not saying that he has no problems and that is why he has come to do the A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 8 Osho

9 CHAPTER 1. plumbing. He has problems, but he knows something about plumbing that has nothing to do with his problems. A doctor has his own problems, a psychiatrist has his own problems. He himself may need another psychiatrist to be psychoanalysed and treated by, but when he comes to the patient he brings his expertise. And this distinction has to be maintained. You are not enlightened, that s true. Nobody is trying to say that you are, nor do you need to pretend to be. But when you are leading a group, your personal problems, your anguish, your anxieties, are by the side. You function there as the expert. This is going to help you because when you function as an expert and you put your personal life aside, you function in a totally different way. You see your own problems then in a more objective, realistic sense because they are far away, put aside, and you are dealing with others problems. You can see that they are your problems also. Anything that happens to any human being is happening to you also, more or less. If somebody has a problem with anger, somebody with greed, some with love, someone with sex, you have all those problems, but there you are functioning as an expert. Watching their problems, helping people to come out of them and seeing that they really do and that they are growing, you become confident that you can help others, so why not yourself? then the same can be done to you too. You can have a more objective outlook about your own problems as if they belong to somebody else and you can work them out. That is the benefit the leader is going to gain out of the groups. He can gain even more than any participant. Helping others, he will grow into this insight. Seeing others problems he will be able to see his problems in a different light. Seeing people coming out of their problems, his confidence will grow. He will feel more rooted, more grounded and he will see, Yes, I can help others, why not me? I can pull myself out in the same way. I have been watching that again and again you relapse into it again. Again and again you bring in your problems and then you become confused. In a way it is very sincere... I love it. One should be sincere, but in a way it is not going to help you or others. It is good to remind oneself again and again that your own problems are there and they have to be solved; that you are not here just to help others, because unless your problems are solved, what is the point of being there? But this is the way I am trying to help you. This is a device for you to be a leader. It is one of the hardest devices to give you a certain responsibility for which you don t feel capable. But I will help you to become capable. And when you start feeling capable of solving others problems, you will suddenly have a new energy available that can be applied to you too. Then it is only a question of direction. This is my understanding that if you really want to learn something, start teaching people. There is no better way to learn than to be a teacher. [The leader then said: There s a participant in the group, who has been catharting all the time... from her to the rest of the group. But there s not supposed to be any catharsis, right?] No, no catharsis, because that group is not for catharsis. If they want to cathart they have to join other groups. You have to insist that Soma is not going to be cathartic. That is the whole training. Otherwise they will mix everything. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 9 Osho

10 CHAPTER 1. If somebody is not listening, watch them for a few hours and then tell them to leave. Be strict. The group has not to lose its difference from other groups. Its distinction has to be maintained. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 10 Osho

11 CHAPTER 2 29 June 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Deva means divine and punyatam means holy, pure, simple. You have to forget the old name and remember the new. And remember the idea behind it of purity, simplicity. A person can be pure and not simple; then purity is not worth anything. You can force purity on yourself but because you force it, it will not be simple. It will be very complex. It will always carry the repressed as an undercurrent and you will be sitting on a volcano. So when I say pure and simple, I mean it. Purity is only when it is simple, when it comes spontaneously, when it is not enforced, when you don t practise it but just allow it to flower. It is like a child. He is pure, simple, but his simplicity is not that of discipline. Once you try to discipline something, your head becomes powerful, and simplicity is of the heart. The head cannot give you simplicity. I was just reading this evening about Pope John. He was a simple man, very simple so simple that many of his colleagues used to think that he was not holy. Because he was so simple they thought he was not great... not a saint at all. Before he became pope, he was a nuncio in Paris. His colleagues were very worried about him because he would mix with ordinary people and would be found in places where he should not be. He would not follow any rules and regulations of his office. They thought him a little of a nuisance in the high circles... snobs. They used to think that he was a nuisance and not worthy of the post he was holding. He loved gossiping and telling anecdotes and stories and sometimes rough ones too. In the diplomatic circles he would start saying something and ladies would feel embarrassed. But he was a very simple man, just like a peasant. Then he became pope. Everybody all over the world was very surprised at how this man could have been elected. They tried to condition him. They taught him how to behave, how to talk, saying, You 11

12 CHAPTER 2. are pope, one of the most important persons in the world, and whatsoever you say means much. They taught him the etiquette and formalities. But he would always forget. The first important person to come to him was Jacqueline Kennedy. They were very worried because Kennedy was the first catholic president of America and America was one of the greatest and most powerful nations, so Pope John had to talk and behave rightly. For seven days they conditioned him, and he would repeat whatsoever they were saying. Then the master of ceremonies was very happy and everything was settled. Then when Jacqueline Kennedy came, Pope John forgot everything. He opened his arms wide and cried, Welcome, Jacky!! This is something very simple, peasant-like, child-like. You cannot manage it. Once you manage it, you destroy it. So what I meant by punyatam is that from this very moment, start thinking in terms of being a child as if you don t know the world and don t know the ways of the world, as if you have no experience... as if you are just a clean slate with nothing written on it. And whatsoever gets written on it, wash it, clean it every day so it remains pure, clean. Remain clean of the past. Prem means love and dhanya means blessed blessed by love. Love is the only blessing there is, and those who love are the only ones who are blessed. All others simply live a life of curse. Nobody is cursing them; they themselves are responsible. If one wants to live a life of tremendous bliss and blessing, one should be more loving not loving to a particular person, just loving. [Osho suggested that the new sannyasin do the forthcoming ten-day meditation camp as an introduction to the various techniques used... ] Do the camp madly. Once you come to know which meditation goes deep inside and takes you like an arrow and reaches to the very core of your being, once you have known one meditation, then there is no problem. Then you can go on working on that meditation, and within three to six months much starts happening. The most basic and important thing, and the most difficult, is to find the right technique. There are a thousand and one techniques, but only one technique will fit you. So to sort it out, figure it out... these techniques are such that one is bound to fit you. There are five types of people, so I have chosen five one for each type. Everybody belongs to one type or other, so one is going to fit you. Once it fits then.i know everything about what can be done and how you should proceed. [A visitor said she had done Vipassana and found it difficult, but very good: It taught me a lot about myself and about the whole world.] It is good but it is hard. It is hard not because the hardness is there in the meditation; it is hard because we are repressed so much. If you are so repressed and you have simply to sit and not to do anything, it becomes impossible, it becomes maddening. We remain occupied so our madness remains occupied; our insanity remains involved somewhere or other. If you are not doing anything, put on the radio or the TV or visit a friend or just read the newspaper or rearrange the furniture in the room so you remain occupied. One never becomes aware that one is not yet capable of just sitting silently. This is what insanity is. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 12 Osho

13 CHAPTER 2. If a person is not capable of sitting silently, what more can you expect of a person? This is the simplest thing in the world to sit silently not doing anything. But it seems to be the hardest. The hardness is coming because you have not done any catharsis. This camp will be very helpful. Do this camp and do a few groups here which will help bring out all that is repressed in you, to cathart it, to act it out. Once your insanity is vomited, you will suddenly become capable of sitting silently and you will not feel any trouble arising You will simply be surprised that it is such a simple thing. Why weren t you able to do it? If you are not able to do it, then just in trying to do it the whole energy is wasted. Then it is not really Vipassana. You are just trying to force something and you are remaining in conflict, continuous conflict, in trying to be. The legs are aching, the back is aching and the body feels uncomfortable and there are so many thoughts and this and that and you are trying somehow to hold yourself together. The whole time is wasted in that. You never have the glimpse of what Vipassana is. Vipassana is possible only when two basic necessities have been fulfilled. First, a deep catharsis of the mind so you don t have many thoughts. They are simply not there; you have thrown them out. These groups help to vomit, to throw, to release all that is repressed inside: anger, hatred, jealousy, whatsoever. And the second is Rolfing. It gives the body a new flow, a new energy, a freshness, a flexibility. These two things done, one for the body and one for the mind, Vipassana comes as easily as your shadow follows you. Just like that. So be here for a little time. Do the camp and then a few groups, and then I will tell you to do Vipassana. I tell people to do it at the end when they have done everything else. Then they are ready. You have done it without being ready. Then it is hard. [A sannyasin says:i have a problem. If I have to write I sometimes get cramp and it bothers me so much that I can t write. Osho checks his energy.] Leave it as it is until after the camp, and then every day for one hour, try to write, deliberately creating the cramp, waiting for it to come, forcing it to come. Do this for seven days, and I don t think that even for the first day you will be able to bring it. But for those seven days you have to try hard to bring it, because everything depends on your effort, so don t deceive yourself. Just don t think superficially, Yes, I am trying to bring it, and deep down you are not. Then there will be trouble. Bring it, force it, and even pretend sometimes that it has come. There is nothing wrong physiologically. It is just fear. Because you are afraid it will come, it comes. It is an auto-hypnosis, so the only way to break it is to bring it deliberately. Then there is no fear. You will really want to bring it and then suddenly you will be puzzled as to why it is not coming. You will see that the hand is flowing because there is no problem. The energy is really flowing more than ordinarily. It is just that some inhibition, some fear has got hold of your mind. Now whenever you write, that fear is there. You know that it is coming and you try hard not to allow it. You are fighting against it, hence the cramp. Don t fight. And after seven days, report back to me. It will be gone... it is nothing. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 13 Osho

14 CHAPTER 2. Ravi means the source of light and dasa means a servant a servant of light. It is also the name of a very famous indian mystic, Ravidasa. The sun is going to be your centre of worship, so never miss the early morning when the sun is rising. That is your time. If you miss that, you will miss much of the whole day. If you can imbibe the morning vibe of the rising sun, you will feel very very alive, flowing, high for the whole day. It will function almost like acid. So never miss the morning. Early in the morning wait for the sun. Take a bath half an hour before and just sit outside and wait for the sun. It will pay you tremendously. When the sun rises just utter a few words that come to your mind, or remain silent. Don t use a formalised prayer... just anything that you feel in that moment. Just a hello will do; or you may not even say anything. Just look at the sun, bow down. In deep prayer touch the earth... anything that you feel, but never ritualise it. And never repeat it, never prepare it. Never think beforehand, I am going to do this. Once you ritualise any prayer, it is dead. Once you rehearse, you have already missed. So that has to be remembered, because that temptation comes to every mind to make a ritual, because a ritual comes easy. You repeat it every day and you become more and more efficient. You become a sort of an expert. Then consciousness is not needed and you can do it robot-like. That s how it is going on in temples, mosques, churches; everything is ritualised. Ritual is dead religion. Religion is alive ritual and when I say alive ritual, I mean what comes in the moment. You create it. Your worship, your prayer, your ritual, comes out of your being. It is a response. It will change every day. There is no need to make it change because then again you come in. Sometimes you will see that it is the same as it was before, but still it is not the same. There is a subtle difference, because it can never be the same. No moment is ever repeated. Says Heraclitus, You cannot step in the same river twice. One of his disciples said to him, Master, I tried. Not only are you right, but I was puzzled very much because I could not even step once. The river was flowing continuously and by the time you reach the bottom of the river, the river that you had touched on the surface is no more there. It is different water. The disciple said, Master, you are right, but I tried. You say it is difficult to step twice. I say it is impossible to even step once, because the river is flowing constantly. Heraclitus laughed and he said, You are right. You got it! That s what I meant. So never make anything a ritual. Every morning move thrilled with the new sun, not knowing what is going to happen. You may dance, you may sit silently, you may have a little chit-chat with the sun. You may say something or you may simply listen to what the sun is saying to you. Nobody knows... nobody needs to know. One simply moves full of wonder, wondering what is going to happen... thrilled. This, Hindus call brahmamuhurt the moment of the morning; they call it the moment of God, and for a few people that is the moment of God. They can confront reality sooner in that moment than ever. And that is your moment. Hence I give you the name ravidasa. So become a servant of light, and wherever you see light, even an ordinary light, feel prayerful. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 14 Osho

15 CHAPTER 2. You may see sometimes in India that somebody puts on the light and people will bow their heads or will say Jai Ram, Jai Ram ; they will remember God. That has become a ritual now, but if it is not ritualised, it has tremendous significance. Light is a symbol of God, so wherever you see light, feel worshipful. The temple is there. Look at the mysteries of light just a small flame, but the most mysterious thing in the world and the whole of life depends on it. The same flame is burning in you. That s why continuous oxygen is needed, because the flame cannot burn without oxygen. Hence the emphasis of Yoga to breathe deep to breathe more and more oxygen so that your life burns deeper and the flame is more clear and no smoke arises in you... so that you can attain to a smokeless flame. [A sannyasin from Ethiopia said he had difficulty in communicating with friends, as he felt that they tended to make him feel in the wrong, so that he would doubt himself even when he felt himself to be right sometimes] The first thing: there is nothing like right or wrong. It depends. It depends on the standpoint. There is not something very solid about which one can decide that this is right and that is wrong. There are no such values. The same thing can be right to one person and wrong to another, because it more or less depends on the person. The same thing can be right in one moment for a person, and in another moment it can be wrong because it depends on the situation. But we all carry a hangover, a hangover which has been implanted in us for centuries, as if there is something right and something which is wrong. You have been taught in aristotelean categories. This is right and that is wrong. This is white and that is black. This is God and that is devil. These categories are false. Life is not divided into black and white. A lot of it is more like grey. And if you see very deeply, white is one extreme of grey and black is another extreme, but the expanse is of grey. So one can see it as white and one can see it as black. It is as if a glass is there, half full, half empty. Somebody says it is half full and this is the truth and somebody says it is half empty and this is the truth... and they start fighting. All arguments are more or less like that. Reality is more grey. It has to be so because it is not divided anywhere. There are no watertight compartments anywhere. This is a foolish categorisation, but it has been implanted in our mind. We always say that this answer is right and that answer is wrong. This whole evaluation is absurd and nobody has the right to decide neither you nor your friends. You have to decide for yourself and they have to decide for themselves. So don t interfere in their life and don t allow them to interfere in your life. I am not saying that you will do something today and that tomorrow you won t feel that it is wrong. But I still say that yesterday it was right. You understand me? Just the moment afterwards you can feel that it was wrong, but this is not you of the moment before. One moment has passed; now your standpoint is different. Now you are looking at it in a different way. You have become more experienced. At least you have that experience that you did not have before you decided. It may look wrong. Tomorrow again it may look right. So, right and wrong go on changing continuously. Then what to do? If somebody wants to decide absolutely, he will be paralysed, he will not be able to act. If you want that you act only when you A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 15 Osho

16 CHAPTER 2. have an absolute decision about what is right, you will be paralysed. You will not be able to act in life. One has to act and to act in a relative world. There is no absolute decision, so don t wait for it. Just watch, see, and whatsoever you feel is right, do. [Osho said that whenever one suggested a way to others, it should be with the understanding that this is only your standpoint and may not be right for others. One should not try to impose anything on anyone. This, Osho said, was what he regarded as the religious quality. If friends did not accept one s advice, one should not feel offended but be able to allow others to have freedom in their decision. Nobody in fact follows anybody else because the final decision has to be taken by the person himself. Even if one follows one s friend s advice, if things went wrong, the blame could not be put on the friend because it was one s own decision ultimately. When friends offered advice, one should listen carefully... ] One of the great things to be learned is listening. Listen very silently. Just don t listen indifferently. Don t listen as if you want them to stop and you are just listening to be polite because they are your friends. It is better in that case to tell them not to say anything because you are not in the mood to listen. But if you are listening, really listen, be open, because they may be right. And even if they are wrong, listening to them will enrich you. You will know more sides of the same thing, more viewpoints, and it is always good to learn. So listen well but always decide on your own. Once a person has this relative understanding and drops absolute nonsense, things become very clear and easy. Otherwise people are very absolutistic. They think in terms of absolutes: this is truth and whatsoever is against it, is wrong. This has crippled the whole earth Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians fighting because everybody claims the absolute truth. Nobody has any claim on it. It is nobody s monopoly. Truth is vast. Infinite are its facets and infinite are the ways to know it. And whatsoever we know is limited; it is just a part. Never claim for the part as if it is the whole and then you will never be in trouble. Watch every word that you speak. Our language is such, our ways of speaking are such, that knowingly, unknowingly, we make absolute statements. Never do that. Use perhaps more. Hesitate more. Use maybe, perhaps more, and allow the other every freedom to decide on his own. Try it for one month. You will have to be very alert, because it is a deep-rooted habit, but if one is alert it can be dropped. Then you will see that arguments drop and then there is no need to defend. And always remember that it is possible that tomorrow you may think something was wrong, but you have changed. That s why I say that repentance is impossible. The person who committed it is not the person who is repenting. They are two different moments, absolutely atomic and unconnected. So there is no point in repenting. There is no point in thinking again and again about the past. What has happened has happened. Whatsoever you think now is not the point. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 16 Osho

17 CHAPTER 2. [Osho said that it was just as when one was sitting for an examination. Once outside the room, when one was more relaxed, collected, one could review and repent for what one had done, but in the moment you were answering the paper, you were doing what was right in that moment.] So each moment has its own validity. No other moment can cancel it. You cannot cancel the past. Whatsoever you did in that moment was right in that moment. It was meant to be so. It was all that could happen and it happened; otherwise was not possible. You being you it was going to happen that way. So now there is no point in crying and weeping and repenting over it. Now you are more experienced. Next time remain alert so that the old thing is not repeated, that s all. For one month, try, and then tell me. There is nothing to be worried about. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 17 Osho

18 CHAPTER 3 30 June 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium [A sannyasin, said she was unable to communicate with her sister, who is also here. She said she felt her sister had some jealousy towards her which she did not understand.] There may be many hidden things involved. Some childhood jealousies are bound to be there. You repressed them, she repressed them, because we are taught to be nice to each other, and that is one of the most dangerous things. We are taught that one has to be nice to one s sister, to one s brother. The emotions are repressed and one is not honest with emotions. Now that you are meditating, those emotions will bubble up and they will bubble up in her also. So you will have to pass through a period in your childhood that you missed. But there is nothing to be worried about. It is natural, because all that is repressed and inhibited will start being expressed. So you will lose communication. In fact, it never existed. Just being polite is not communication. Just being nice is not enough for communication because if you are repressing something, communication is superficial, just verbal. You are simply making empty gestures, just meaningless motions. You can say hello to a person without saying hello. You can smile towards a person without smiling at all. You can talk and be pleasant, as one is expected to be, without being pleasant at all. This whole gesture may be a deep avoidance. Your politeness, your niceness, your goodness, may be just an armour because you are afraid that if you become true, the emotions that have been repressed will bubble up. And the other person is also trying to be nice. She is as afraid as you. So it can appear that there is communication but there is not. If there were, then meditation would have made it even deeper. If there were any communication, meditation would have made it a communion, something deeper than communication. But if it is not there, meditation would make you aware of it. 18

19 CHAPTER 3. That which is not can be taken away. That which is not is always taken away by meditation because it is false, and meditation is an effort to be true, authentic. That which is, is always enhanced by meditation. That which is not, is always taken away. That is the meaning of Jesus saying, Those who have will be given more, and those who don t have, even that will be taken away. So, in effect, it is better because now you are becoming aware of a reality that you have avoided your whole life. Brothers, sisters, only appear to be nice to each other. Otherwise they are enemies because they are the first competitors. In a small house, when the first child is born, he is the whole and sole. Then comes the next child. He starts competing; competition is natural. This child wants more attention and the first child feels offended by the presence of this child. He feels as if his monopoly is broken. And it is natural that the mother may pay more attention to the new child; the new child needs more. Then jealousies will arise. When there are many children in a house, it is bound to be that one child will get more attention than others. There is going to be a hierarchy; that s how the mind functions. The mother may love one child more, the other a little less. There are pets, because the mother is also human. You cannot expect that she should love absolutely equally; that is not possible. She may pretend. She pretends hard, but children are very perceptive They can immediately see that somebody is liked more, somebody is liked less and that this pretension is just bogus. Then an inner conflict, fight, ambition arises. Each child is different. Somebody is very talented, somebody is not. Somebody has a musical talent, somebody has not. Somebody has a mathematical talent and somebody has not. Somebody is physically more beautiful than the other or one has a certain charm of personality and the other is lacking in it. Then problems arise more and more, and we are taught to be nice, never to be true. If children are taught to be true, they will fight it out and they will drop it by fighting. They will be angry, they will fight and say hard things to the other and then they will be finished, because children get rid of things very easily. If they are angry, they will be angry, hot, almost volcanic, but next moment they are holding each other s hands and everything is forgotten. They are very simple, but they are not allowed that simplicity. They are told to be nice, whatsoever the cost. They are prohibited from being angry with each other: She is your sister, he is your brother. How can you be angry? Those angers, jealousies and a thousand and one wounds, scars, go on collecting. One day later in your life, if you come across something like meditation, then they will all bubble up. That s what s happening. So this time, please don t repress them again. Now face the situation this time. If you are angry, if she is angry, then be angry. Fight it out. Finish it! Say things that you always wanted to say and have not said, and she should say things she always wanted to say and did not because both of you were playing the game of being nice. Drop that nonsense and immediately you will see if you can face each other in true anger, jealousy, if you can fight it out immediately after it, in the wake of it, a deep love and compassion will arise. And that will be the real thing. Then communication will be possible. So this is a great opportunity. It looks difficult, but if you can face it, something of tremendous value will happen to you. Once you are at ease with your sister, something like a block will drop A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 19 Osho